


Raindrops in a Puddle

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pokemon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:25:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His grandfather called it 'character building'. He called it 'miser'ble wet'. He hated rain and anything to do with water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raindrops in a Puddle

She was always collecting things, he noticed. Every day, his grandfather sent him outside to play, and every day she skipped down the path, humming and picking up pebbles along the way. He would stare at her, bemused, until she disappeared from sight. He wondered many things, such as what she did with all the little rocks, and what she would have to collect when the pebbles on the path ran out. Genuinely concerned, he tried thinking of things to leave her to pick up.

He stopped this train of thought when Gramps caught him taking berries from the bowl on the table. The professor told him not to do that, because it would attract wild Pokemon to the path. The little boy, with his wide green eyes, vowed not to do that any longer.

And so the problem remained.

The little boy finally decided to just ask her why she collected pebbles. It seemed like a pretty pointless hobby to him, and he considered himself highly intelligent for a four-year-old.

On that day, however, it was raining when he was sent out to play. His grandfather called it 'character building'. He called it 'miser'ble wet'. He hated rain and anything to do with water. (Bath time had always been and would always be a 'miserable wet' for his caretakers.) So he merely sulked under the awning that covered the entrance to the lab.

And, for some bizarre reason, she still came skipping down the path, wearing a yellow parka and hat. This time, however, she wasn't collecting pebbles. She did carry a bucket, which the boy found quite peculiar.

"You look like a Psyduck," he declared, pointing at her.

She looked up, startled, then glared, putting her tiny fists on her hips. "Yeah, well, you look like a wet Mankey!"

The boy, who saw absolutely nothing wrong with looking like a wet Mankey, merely snorted derisively. "What are you doing outside anyway? It's all rainy!"

The girl was quick to point out that he was outside too. "But I'm going to visit my grandparents. My parents wanted me to." She stared at him with miraculously large sapphire eyes. "Where are your parents?"

"Dead," the little boy told her dismissively. It was hard to be sad about people he'd never even met and never would meet.

"Oh. Too bad. Well, see you later!" With that, she turned to walk back out into the downpour, refastening her hood firmly over her brown hair.

"Wait!" the boy called after her. "Why do collect pebbles?" He had almost forgotten to ask, and now his green eyes became wide with frustration.

She slowly stopped, then turned her head backwards to look at him. "Why d'you want to know?" she asked curiously. She wasn't mean-spirited, not one bit. But she definitely liked having the upper hand.

"I just… want to know." The boy loved understanding how things worked, including people. But he didn't know this fact about himself yet, and so all he had to go on was a burning desire to figure out why she loved pebbles so much.

She sighed and slowly walked back, and then she sat down on one step below the boy's step. "Mum told me that things come from other things," she explained, as if one talking to a small child. "That means that Geodude and Onix and Diglett grow from the pebbles! I can't let people just walk on them if they're going to become Pokemon!"

The boy doubted this. "They can't become Pokemon," he claimed. "Why aren't there any of those Pokemon from around here then?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Maybe it just takes them a really long time to grow up."

"What about water Pokemon, then?" He pointed to one of the puddles, meeting her eye. "Don't water Pokemon come from rain?"

She nodded vigorously, smiling brilliantly. "Yes! Except, water Pokemon come from the ocean too. So there's a lot of them, even if I can't save every raindrop from landing in the puddles." Suddenly, the little boy understood what the bucket was for.

"What do ya do with the puddles, then?" If water Pokemon couldn't survive the puddles, then what did they do?

"You  _jump!_ " the girl squealed excitedly, pulling the boy from his seat. He struggled, but her enthusiasm overpowered him. "Like this!"

She dragged him, like a beached whale, through several puddles. Between the water on the ground and in the air, both quickly became thoroughly soaked and extremely muddy.

And it was  _fun_.

The next day was sunny, but there were still many puddles on the path. She walked by again, and this time they had a grand old time, jumping through the muddy water and splashing each other.

And so it was for the entire spring, and most of the summer.

When she didn't show up to play one day (or any day after that), he wondered where she went. Professor Oak gave the boy a Scyther, to take his mind off the disappearance. And by the time that summer ended, she was gone from his memory, like raindrops in a puddle, or pebbles on a path.


End file.
